Yesterday was a disappointing day. :-( I found both breathing exercises a shade too difficult to do. The first one is called 'Bahya Pranayama'. It's a multi-step process that begins when you take a deep breath and then put your chin on your throat to lock it inside from the above. This is called 'Jalandhar Bandh'. So far so good. But then you are supposed to lock the breath from down below by pushing up your ass and genital muscles. I think it is called 'Mulabandha'. I was completely confused about how this is to be done. On top of it, the instructor is a male so I wasn't sure how to ask him to explain it further. Of course, keeping quiet would have meant doing the exercise half-heartedly or wrong. So I skirted the real issue by asking him what harm can come if this second part of locking is not done right. He said not much so that's a relief. The 3rd part of the exercise is to contract your stomach - the goal being to make your navel touch your spine. I am pretty sure I won't be able to achieve this in this life. And then finally your are supposed to close your right nostril with your right hand thumb and exhale through left nostril only. We tried this thrice in today's class. I like the fact that it puts pressure on the stomach. Though the purpose of this exercise is to distribute the energy in the breath locked in the stomach to all parts of the body, I hope it also does its bit to tone down the stomach muscles. BTW, women are not supposed to do this exercise while menstruating, for obvious reasons. Our instructor also told us that pregnant ladies are forbidden from doing Kapaalbhaati.
There was general discussion about diabetes, high BP, the twin problems faced by ladies - loss of control over passing of urine in old age and prolapsed uterus, the prostrate problem in gents and which asanas or breathing exercises can help prevent these. We were told that since the saliva has medicinal properties we should drink water before brushing teeth first thing in the morning. I am not sure I want to do that. I knew that chewing food for a longer time aids its digestion but when our instructor told us that we should chew each morsel 32 times, I wondered how much of my lunch will I be able to finish during 30-45 minutes of lunch time at this speed. Drinking hot water is beneficial for those wanting to lose weight so I guess I will end up doing it for the rest of my life as the battle of the bulge is always a work in progress :-)
I almost made a fool of myself today when the instructor, I forget in connection to what, asked who flies. I think he was trying to explain the meaning of the word 'Uddayan'. I was about to say 'Superman' when the guy sitting next to me said 'Hanuman'. Of course, he had the right answer. I couldn't help but think of Christopher Reeves. I am sure I must have missed a good 5 minutes of the following discussion as I daydreamed about Superman ;-)
The second breathing exercise stumped me totally. It is meant to exercise your vocal chords. I forget what it is called. You are supposed to inhale and pass the breath through the throat right upto your vocal chords. It made a very funny noise and I, for the life of me, couldn't manage it. It seems that if you end up coughing while doing it, you are doing it right. This exercise is supposed to provide protection against throat cancer and diseases connected with vocal chords. Given the fact that I was unable to do it right, I guess I will have to take my chances with both of these.
There was another curious fact that the instructor told us. He said that our eyes are a major source of leaking our energy so it is better to keep eyes closed while doing these exercises - once you are sure you are doing them right that is. I don't know how to verify this claim. I am rather doubtful that Google will turn up anything about this. The other reason he gave about keeping eyes closed while doing exercises sounded more reasonable - closing eyes shuts out the external distractions and helps you concentrate on your inner self.
Speaking of verifying what is told in the class, I remember our instructor mentioning that he prefers dealing with humble vegetable vendors when it comes to teaching yoga because he is capable of accepting a lot on faith while the educated lot doubt everything. To be fair, he explains the reasoning behind everything but I find a lot of it difficult to verify e.g. the thing about eyes leaking energy. And I have never been great about taking anything on faith. I know, faith can move mountains and all that. But here it would be a case of 'blind faith', isn't it?
Anyways, so far it seems like "Kapaalbhaati' and 'Bhastrika' are the two exercises that I can keep up with. Not bad for 3 days' worth of work.
P.S. Please do not attempt any of the above exercises without consulting a trained Yoga teacher. I cannot guarantee that I have got the details right.
There was general discussion about diabetes, high BP, the twin problems faced by ladies - loss of control over passing of urine in old age and prolapsed uterus, the prostrate problem in gents and which asanas or breathing exercises can help prevent these. We were told that since the saliva has medicinal properties we should drink water before brushing teeth first thing in the morning. I am not sure I want to do that. I knew that chewing food for a longer time aids its digestion but when our instructor told us that we should chew each morsel 32 times, I wondered how much of my lunch will I be able to finish during 30-45 minutes of lunch time at this speed. Drinking hot water is beneficial for those wanting to lose weight so I guess I will end up doing it for the rest of my life as the battle of the bulge is always a work in progress :-)
I almost made a fool of myself today when the instructor, I forget in connection to what, asked who flies. I think he was trying to explain the meaning of the word 'Uddayan'. I was about to say 'Superman' when the guy sitting next to me said 'Hanuman'. Of course, he had the right answer. I couldn't help but think of Christopher Reeves. I am sure I must have missed a good 5 minutes of the following discussion as I daydreamed about Superman ;-)
The second breathing exercise stumped me totally. It is meant to exercise your vocal chords. I forget what it is called. You are supposed to inhale and pass the breath through the throat right upto your vocal chords. It made a very funny noise and I, for the life of me, couldn't manage it. It seems that if you end up coughing while doing it, you are doing it right. This exercise is supposed to provide protection against throat cancer and diseases connected with vocal chords. Given the fact that I was unable to do it right, I guess I will have to take my chances with both of these.
There was another curious fact that the instructor told us. He said that our eyes are a major source of leaking our energy so it is better to keep eyes closed while doing these exercises - once you are sure you are doing them right that is. I don't know how to verify this claim. I am rather doubtful that Google will turn up anything about this. The other reason he gave about keeping eyes closed while doing exercises sounded more reasonable - closing eyes shuts out the external distractions and helps you concentrate on your inner self.
Speaking of verifying what is told in the class, I remember our instructor mentioning that he prefers dealing with humble vegetable vendors when it comes to teaching yoga because he is capable of accepting a lot on faith while the educated lot doubt everything. To be fair, he explains the reasoning behind everything but I find a lot of it difficult to verify e.g. the thing about eyes leaking energy. And I have never been great about taking anything on faith. I know, faith can move mountains and all that. But here it would be a case of 'blind faith', isn't it?
Anyways, so far it seems like "Kapaalbhaati' and 'Bhastrika' are the two exercises that I can keep up with. Not bad for 3 days' worth of work.
P.S. Please do not attempt any of the above exercises without consulting a trained Yoga teacher. I cannot guarantee that I have got the details right.
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